Preferred candidate for OEP Chair role announced

Defra has today announced that its preferred candidate for the role of OEP Chair is Dame Helen Ghosh DCB.

The appointment will be subject to a pre-appointment hearing by a joint session of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Environmental Audit Committees.

Dame Helen DCB is a former British civil servant who has been Master of Balliol College, Oxford, since 2018. From 2005 to 2010 she was Permanent Secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and was then Permanent Secretary at the Home Office. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Bath in the 2008 Birthday Honours. She left the Civil Service in 2012 to become Director General of the National Trust.

Defra’s announcement can be found here.